We have a shamefully progressive and corrupt tax system that desperately needs reforming - and the left are making secret recordings. All while Obama and his leftwing machine promise higher tax rates on the productive class. Thus killing it. The ultimate goal.

Top earners are the target for new tax increases, but the federal income tax system is already highly progressive. The top 10 percent of income earners paid 71 percent of all federal income taxes in 2009 though they earned 43 percent of all income. The bottom 50 percent paid 2 percent of income taxes but earned 13 percent of total income. About half of tax filers paid no federal income tax at all.

"Top earners are the target for new tax increases, but the federal income tax system is already highly progressive. The top 10 percent of income earners paid 71 percent of all federal income taxes in 2009 though they earned 43 percent of all income. The bottom 50 percent paid 2 percent of income taxes but earned 13 percent of total income. About half of tax filers paid no federal income tax at all."

April, shame on you. You know better to through facts out to liberals. They only understand emotions.

I love how the two party system polarizes lefties! Mitt is a moderate repbulican at best. Surely no conservative, yet these whiny lefties like shiloh and garage CONSTANTLY poke at him using the usual partisan tactics. If he was on their side, they'd likely have NO problem with him versus the evil republican, whover that was. If we ran Ghandi as a conservative, they'd say the same tired stuff. Fascinating.......

Also, I can assume that the lefts scorn for Mitt means that they totally APPROVE of the extra 5+ TRILLION in debt these clowns will foist on our kids over the next 4 years if their savior gets 4 more years? Unvelievable.....

From my old role, looking at the film clip, this was done by a bartender at a temp bar station. My guess is, given the when the break ends it starts on someone's hand is on the bar top moving away that gap is caused by that person interrupting the filmer.

That implies he had to edit what he could not turn off while someone came up to the bar to get a drink. That would account for the time loss of one to two minutes in this Romney hit piece.

The "Gap" was anything but inadvertant and the film taker is probably someone who took Media Matters class in video/digital tracking of the oppostion and had it edited out.

Notice the glassware and positioning of the camera so that they can get a fairly clear shot of Romney's head but from the other side of the bar it would not be noticeably visible. This means he set up the phone or camera so as to be hidden to some degree, but if a full rendering had been done it would be on the recording of the person at the bar who would have talked over Romney rendering it unintelligible for that length of time or picking other discussion.

So Corn, who has a rather dubious past in terms of integrity and honesty has called it a "full" video based on what the undercover bartender was able to do with his time, editing skills and physical position, full well knowing that the media will run the narrative not the correction.

Which is why Romney (and every politician, really) should routinely record their remarks. Even in "private" settings like this one. If a covert recording leaks, the campaign has their own full, unedited version to use as they wish.

People carry recording devices with them all the time now, and at an event filled with strangers it's hopeless to expect that nobody ever uses them. I hope conservatives don't try to go too far with the "illegal recording" angle. Those are bad laws, outdated and very easily abused.

Ambassador Stevens is dead, how hard did you party for that? Jeez, you are such a piece of shit. Now name another dead person, ass wipe.

And it's not like they have a full unedited tape of Zero exclaiming his love of redistribution. Oh wait...

As for Romney, in case you libtards didn't notice, Mittens was practicing socialized medicine before socialized medicine was cool. Mittens isNOT a conservative. At best he is a libertarian. Something a few of you libtards on here claim to be, but you still jump to Zero's dog whistles.

Until the 2 minute gap is provided, the tape is nothing more than a deceptively edited fraud piece by a left wing organization. No MSM worth its salt should continue to run it. Moreover, commercials that show it are guilty of the same thing and should get four pinoccios.

Trayvon is dead. He is so fucking dead he's deader than Mary Jo Kopechne. How hard did you party when you realized a black kid had been killed by a "conservative"? I know. I know...the ends, et al.

Hey Shiloh, Sally Ride DIED! so that Zero could dismantle the space program so he could use NASA for Muj out reach!

Shiloh, Liberace died so Moochie could promote healthy eating! He died of "the watermelon diet", not smoking dick, as was bandied about.

Hey Shiloh! Kim Jong Il died so that Zero could take over a country where he wouldn't have to put up with these pesky elections and an opposition party Those stupid chinks still didn't let him do it though.

I know I'm feeding the troll but I get tired of these amatuerish efforts at insult that pass as wit by communist libtards like Shiloh and Garage. So I vent a little spleen on 'em once in a while. Sorta' like when I get mad at a puppy for piddling on the carpet. I'll rub the puppies nose in it. So to with Shiloh, and Garage. Less with Garage because when I first came to Althouse he was just a little lefttard catepiller, kinda creeping along, leaving his little catepiller turds that were so small no one would notice. And absolutely defenseless. NOw, he has pupated into a full blown moth of a libtard, and I don't want him eating anymore of my laundry, so I swar at him now and then.

Seriously, I am sure Mother Jones edited it for clarity, not wanting to bog people down in unnecessary stuff.

Best of intentions, naturally.

After griping that O'Keefe edited his videos involving ACORN (even though he, you know, released all of the videos completely thru Breitbart), this is some solid irony.

So Jimmy Carter's unemployed Grandson accidentally turned off his hidden iPhone for 2 minutes, immediately after the rest of the disputed quote?

Maybe he's unemployed for a reason. :)

Just a quick FYI for confused Althouse cons: Carter didn't make the tape, he found it doing a routine internet/YouTube search.

Going with the Breitbart example involving that skank at the NAACP meeting --- he is CLEARLY lying and we cannot trust anything he says.

Also, his grandfather is a useless putz whose existence serves as a great case for atheists.

I love how the two party system polarizes lefties! Mitt is a moderate repbulican at best. Surely no conservative, yet these whiny lefties like shiloh and garage CONSTANTLY poke at him using the usual partisan tactics.

If Republicans ran Bill Clinton, all you'd hear is how he's a far right winger who fought hard to deregulate industries and ignored corporate fraud.

...sure, they'd be accurate for once, but still.

bin Laden is dead. Celebrate!

Sure. Families are going hungry due to the Obama economy --- but, hey, OBL is dead.

THAT will put increasingly expensive food on the table.

And it's not like they have a full unedited tape of Zero exclaiming his love of redistribution. Oh wait...

The LA Times is also sitting on what is, reportedly, a bad video involving Obama and a radical Islamist or something.

But, sure the media that botched the Zimmerman story, the WaWa story, etc --- they have the track record where we can slough this off as an "honest mistake".

I heard that in the suspicious gap, Romney explained that "contrary to what I just said, peace in the Middle East is achievable, and I will vigorously pursue it if I am elected president." But you won't see that reported by the lame-stream media!

It's true. The missing part completely changes the meaning of the message. According to my sources, here is what he said:

"No, but seriously, we need to do what we can to optimize the opportunities for all Americans to succeed. I was just joshing about all that 47% stuff. Can you imagine if I really believed that? Shoot, who cares more about those poor dumb bastards than me?"

I think Jimmy Carter, having failed in changing his legacy of being the "worst POTUS ever" had his grandson tape and edit this piece to help Obama, knowing four more years will seal his fate and become the new "worst President ever." Then he can start working on replacing Carter as the worst ex-POTUS ever.

I heard that in the suspicious gap, Romney said, "Psyche! This whole speech is just a hoax to prove that the lame-stream media is gay for Obama. Obviously, I don't believe any of the stupid and indefensible things I just said!" But you won't see that reported by the lame-stream media!

And see the little puppy has no defense against having his nose rubbed in the carpet. Dance puppet, dance.

Was that yawn to open your mouth more so you could take a deeper breath? Or to shove another handful of Cheetoh's into that gob of goo you call denturework? I imagine Shiloh being found dead one day, his skin stuck to his chair ,like those morbidly obese people who never leave their couch for years.

"What killed the victim doctor?""Apparently, the "victim" started choking as they shoved one more Cheetoh down their throat, but then coudn't catch their wind, because the lungs had been encrusted with Cheetoh dust. As they fumbled for the phone to call their Mamma, their Cheetoh encased fingers couldn't grip the plastic,so it fell to the floor, where they couldn't reach it. Realizing they had mere moments to live, they grabbed the stick they used to wipe their ass with, and managed to dial 1-800- pizz-ahut, where the manager recognized their best customer, and just shipped the usual, a case of large pies. The driver, who had a key to let himself in found the poor mound of flesh this ghastly blue and orange color. Blue from the asphixiation, and orange from the encrusted Cheetoh dust.""Was it a man, or a woman? You never said.""It was so fat, we'll never know."

What could Romney have said in the suspicious gap that would render press coverage of his comments unfair?

Within just the last six weeks, we've been subjected to near-constant hootin' and hollerin' by Obama supporters that remarks that were available to all from the first somehow rendered President Tee-Time's "you didn't build that!" remark unibjectionable.

And now, you claim to fail to be able to imagine remarks - over the course of two full minutes of missing tape - that might expound, elaborate, clarify, or otherwise elucidate the remarks Romney made that we're all supposed to piss our pants and spit nails over?

Didn't Andy R yesterday assure us that it was the whole tape? And if there is a cut, how do you know that only 2 minutes are missing? Could it be 20? 10? Do they have a certified time for the entire speech? Or was it from memory, months later?

I'm hearing a lot about "you didn't build that," which I didn't mention at all. I am not hearing any plausible explanation about how the missing portion of Romney's speech could shed show that his comments have been taken out of context.

The relevance of context is to explain what the words are referring to. You need to know, for example, what "that" is referring to in Obama's "you didn't build that" line, and you need to what 47% is referring to in Romney's line. In this case, we know what Romney was referring to with his 47% comment -- he was referring to the people who don't pay federal income tax. So there isn't any missing context.

A) New media altering a video to make their political opponents look bad

B) While lying about it

C) And getting picked up uncritically by the media

It's like everything bad that was ever said about Breitbart or O'Keefe... but it is true about (what's the guy's name? David Corn? Carn? Whatever. He's a failure as a journalist or get tricked by his source. Either way, loser.)

"I'm hearing a lot about "you didn't build that," which I didn't mention at all. I am not hearing any plausible explanation about how the missing portion of Romney's speech could shed show that his comments have been taken out of context."

-- It doesn't matter. We were -lied to- about the tape. We were told that it was complete. It was not. We were told that it had everything, it is not. There's convincing evidence it was not equipment malfunction (I've used handheld recording devices, that... does not happen unless you are a rank amateur or constantly fiddling with features.) So, WHY was the video edited/were we lied to?

That is enough to convince me that there is something in that gap that doesn't help the people who put the story forward. Sadly, since they are partisans and not journalists, it seems simpler to me to assume that they are hiding something that would hurt their argument.

The "you didnt build that" bit of the tape is not nearly as damning as the two paragraphs preceeding it. The ones where he implied that brains and hard work were traits commonly shared by lots of unsuccessful people: leafing the impression that luck alone dostinguished the drooling mob with rich merchants.

Allen S. wrote:"David Corn is also a member of Journolist. He could care less if what he says is the truth. He has a story to tell, and if that means telling lies, he will."

Allen - Is Journolist still around? I thought it was dead. I have little doubt that something has replaced it; something equivalent. But I really wondered what. And yes, this Romney video thing made me all the more curious about that subject.

That's just silly. This was a phone, right? If it stops, you just tap the screen here and there to start recording again. You don't need to pick it up, and you never need to move the camera.

Very unlikely scenario. If it stops, the screen goes dark as the recording ends. You would have to do more than tap it to ensure that it both starts and is still focused in on Romney.

In fact, even tapping it will probably jostle the camera just a bit so that it is no longer focused on the exact same spot.

You're making a special pleading to try to excuse what is painfully obvious: the tape was edited and a portion was removed. The fact that people are lying about it makes it reasonable to assume they're hiding some part of Romney's speech that they don't want people to hear.

Honestly. That was a long clip they played of Romney talking with full conviction. Bullshit aside, does anyone honestly believe that there's some magical context clip that was ever in existence, that would change the meaning even a little? A dead certainty that if you heard more of that donor talk, you'd hear more of what you've already heard.

"The [paragraphs] where he implied that brains and hard work were traits commonly shared by lots of unsuccessful people."

If you do not know that this "implication" as simply, patently true, then you have lived a miraculously sheltered life and need to grow the fuck up.

"leafing the impression that luck alone dostinguished the drooling mob with rich merchants."

The truth that many smart and hardworking people never get ahead in this economy, indeed in this world, does not at all "leaf" any such impression as that. It is not a matter of "luck alone." But luck and chance very often do deliver featuring blows in terms of human destiny. And again, if you do not know this, you have lived a miraculously sheltered life, and need to grow the fuck up.

Call me naive, but, wouldn't you think that a modern campaign, one which might spend $1B and is presenting a candidate who is portrayed as pretty sharp, would have recorded, indexed and archived every waking moment of the guy's life for the past year or two? Look at how many times Rush Limbaugh has been bailed out of a jam, because he had the transcriptions of his daily broadcast immediately at hand. That's a function of his hearing loss, but how is it possible, in the post George Allen "Macaca" era, that campaigns are not using recording for defense as well as offense?

"Bullshit aside, does anyone honestly believe that there's some magical context clip that was ever in existence, that would change the meaning even a little?"

-- Because we were lied to about this gap in the tape. If you were on a jury, and something looked damning, then you found out the prosecution had rigged the evidence and hidden part of it, I hope you'd be VERY suspicious about why the prosecution is acting unethically. Frankly, since it was deliberately removed (or, at least, the edited bit was deliberately not revealed during the first airing of the tape), I see no reason to give it any benefit of the doubt.

We were lied to and conned. Conmen and liars shouldn't get to BENEFIT from lying to me.